Jack Draper’s next opponent at the French Open has revealed his improved recent form has followed a “Hangover”-like trip to Las Vegas. And Russian-born Kazakh Alexander Bublik has claimed the “insane” British No.1 has the body of a UFC fighter. The colourful world No.62 was in the top 20 at Wimbledon last year but he admitted he suffered burnout trying to get higher. After six first-round defeats in his first eight events this year, Bublik needed a break from the game - and took one in Sin City.

And he returned and reached the final of a Challenger Event in Phoenix and won in Turin before now reaching the French Open fourth round for the first time. “I dropped out of the top 50 for the first time probably in my life,” he explained. “For six years I was there, and then I had a drop. I was on a losing streak, and then I have basically an option to take it a bit seriously in a way. I guess there was just a shift in the mentality because I had no options whatsoever.

“Getting to 17 in the world, which was a big thing for me. You know, I never thought I could make it to the top 20. I made it to 17. Then I'm, like, okay: ‘I have to do this and that, I have to practice harder. Work on my diet, stop drinking, stop partying. Have to be a more professional soldier, I would say, as we are in a game’.

“Like right now everybody is like robots, and they're just crazy, crazy performance guys. Unfortunately my fall was not linked with lack of attitude and lack of practicing. It was the exact opposite. I just burned out because I was waiting for the results to come.

“Then I got to the point, like, Okay, why am I sacrificing so much? For what? I am 80 in the world. My coach suggests a trip to Vegas in between Indian Wells and Phoenix. He's like: ‘Man, if you play like this, we're just going to be out of tennis, of the conversation by Wimbledon because that's where my points are. I mean, after Wimbledon I made, like, 50 points.

“I said: Okay, let's go to Vegas. We enjoy. We change the racket. We did many things. I said, Okay, if it goes, it goes. If not, thank you very much, tennis, and it worked.”

Asked if it was a training trip to Vegas, he laughed: “No, Vegas, Vegas, like a Hangover thing Vegas, yeah. So it was a good three days in Vegas. I arrived three hours before the match in Phoenix, and I had just leave it all out. I said: ‘Okay, I'm useless now, I can't win a match, so let it be, let's see how it goes.’”

Draper has won both their previous meetings. And Bublik said: “Jack for me is insane. I saw him first day here. I'm like, Are you getting ready for UFC? Last year the guy is 40 in the world. This year he is top four, top five in the world.

“That's a crazy achievement. He doesn't seem to stop, so I mean, what do I have to do to beat him? I don't know. I will just go there, enjoy the time, show what I'm capable of showing, and we all know what I'm capable of doing on court and then we see how it goes.

“This is the approach I have now, and Jack is a great sportsman, great person. I know him since -- I mean, I played him in the quallies of Queen's in 2018 or something. He was a little kid. Then when he beat me in Queen's, and he told me -- I didn't remember that.

“He told me, I finally got you. I said, ‘Let's speak when you are in top 50’, because he was like 300 in the world striking everything, and now he's top 10. So now I have to have some courage to play, and we'll see how it goes. He's amazing. He's, like, No. 2 in the race or something, 3? What is that? I don't understand. That's too good.”